Aerie Pharmaceuticals Announces the Appointment of Interim Executive Chair and Departure of Chairman and CEO

Aerie Pharmaceuticals announced that it is executing its succession plan and that effective September 17, 2021, Vicente Anido, PhD, no longer serves as the company’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer or as a director of the company. Consistent with the succession plan in place, the company’s Board of Directors has appointed Benjamin F. McGraw, III, Pharm.D., as its Interim Executive Chairman of the Board of Directors of the company and commenced a search for a new Chief Executive Officer. Upon the appointment of a new Chief Executive Officer, the company intends to separate the roles of Chairman and Chief Executive Officer.

“On behalf of the Board, I would like to express our sincere appreciation to Vince for all his contributions over the years since Aerie was a private company through the public offering and into Aerie becoming a commercial stage company," Dr. McGraw said in a company news release. Under his leadership, Aerie now has two clearly differentiated products on the market and we believe we have a very good portfolio of products in development. We believe the succession plan we have in place will serve the shareholders well. We have a strong board of directors and each one of them has committed to helping the company during this transition.”

Dr. Anido stated, “It’s been an exciting experience making Dr. David Epstein’s dream of developing a unique glaucoma product that treats the underlying causes of the disease a reality. Many thanks to the Aerie team for the great memories.”